Little Bears at Mos Burger January 29, 365 Challenge

It's a rainy, blecky day. So we wandered to a near by Mos Burger with Leighton for lunch. Little Bear approved of the Honey Apple Tea.

Goodbye Sun Moon Lake, hello Taichung and River

The morning we checked out of the Hotel Del Lago, it was super foggy, and raining. Apparently this is the weather that is going to follow us for the foreseeable future.

Sadness.

The view however, is amazing still in the fog.

The Pagoda and temples shrouded in fog

The effect was eerie, yet beautiful.

We packed up our luggage for our 11am checkout, then headed to hotel breakfast. Pretty much the same as before, although this time Kitsune convinced me to have a bit of roll cake with him.

After breakfast we checked out and hurried to the bus stop as it was supposed to be leaving in just a few mins. We made it in time, the bus was there and still loading people. There were no loaders which felt strange. Every other time we have taken a bus there was someone who loaded your luggage. This time there was only the driver, and he wanted nothing to do with us. I tried to give him our tickets and he just stared at us. I asked him if we could load our luggage and he just glared and pointed to the loading area. So, ticked, I just said forget it and dragged everything over. There was no visible room, so I made some by shoving things out of the way to fit ours. If he wasn't going to help, then he could deal with other people being upset. Once loaded we got on the bus, the driver once again ignoring our tickets, and sat down. At least this bus was more comfortable than the one we arrived in.

Re-dyed my hair this morning! 

Kitsune messaged River (our Aunt? She is only a few years older than us. From the Chen side of Kitsune's family.) to let her know we were on our way back to Taichung via bus.

She met us at the HSR station, and we took a taxi to her family's home. The hospitality was wonderful, they are such kind people. Kitsune was able to understand and speak pretty well with them, and River was able to translate a good portion when we struggled. We at Lien-Wu, and an amazing purple red Dragon Fruit. I had only seen white dragon fruit before. The color was gorgeous.

We headed out with River and snagged a few different buses until we arrived at a place I can't remember the name of  >.<'  It was a super misty, foggy, windy day. We persevered however and wandered around looking at things, and listening to River tell us about the place.

This is apparently a super popular church that people come there to visit and take pictures. From there we wandered around and ended up at a dairy farm that makes all their own products. They sell raw milk that apparently can't survive more than an hour outside of refrigeration. There was a couple of tourists that checked out after us that River translated the issues they were having. The solution was grab a bunch of cups and drink it all then.

River treated us to some cream buns and coffee from the dairy farm, and we had a quick picnic out in the misty cool. Afterwards we headed to another bus to take us to FengJia Night Market where she has her own little soap shop.

I wish I had thought to grab a few photo's of her shop. She hand crafts all her own products and tries to tailor her products to specific needs and seasons. I can't wait to try the few bars she gave us. Her shop is in Garden Mall, and if you are ever around the area, please check it out! River's soaps. They are awesome. Also in that mall is a coffee shop whose owner is good friends with River. He is an award winning Champion Coffee maker. His coffee is served in bowls as opposed to cups as he prepares it the Aboriginal way. So, go check out River and have some coffee! It is totally worth it.

Hanbi Trail, Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan

Photos I took on the Hanbi trail.

Full Day Adventure at Sun Moon Lake

Since Kitsune went to sleep so early, he also woke up early.

As in, 5am early.

Ugh.

It did afford us the chance to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately we were facing the wrong directions. All we saw was it getting lighter. Even so, the view is amazing, and even that was super cool to see.

It was unfortunately overcast in the morning, and a bit misty. The sun did later come out and burn some of it off. Breakfast at the Hotel was complimentary, so we headed off to eat once it reached 7:30am.

Spa Boiled egg, fresh tofu, etc. It was ok for hotel breakfast. Beitou place was better

Kitsune worked more after breakfast, and I sat out on our balcony and read. After getting ready around 1pm we went and got tickets to take the boat tour. (I was tired and kinda cranky so we didn't go out as early as we originally planned.) 

We got off at the first stop where the hiking trails to the Pagoda are. Spent several hours on the trails, but only made it up to the temple, not the Pagoda. (Side note, I am massively out of shape, and just about died going as far as I did. Kitsune was super disappointed that I refused to go the rest of the way to the Pagoda :(. ) I'll post photos of the trail and temple in another entry.

Taiwanese sausage and raw garlic (only Kitsune eats the garlic :P)

We hiked back down, and took the boat to the last stop, the Aboriginal town. I was tired and absurdly sweaty, but it was nice to slowly wander around the small night market and eat some tasty foods. I didn't really take any pictures unfortunately. We had this awesome fried large shrimp thing with veg and onions all over it on a bed of rice, a chicken drumstick that was slit open and stuffed with rice and veg and tasty things, and some soup dumplings. We had about 10 mins to get to the boat so we didn't have the chance to try anything else. 

Once back on our side of the lake, we wandered back to the tasty wheel scallion pancake things, and bought a bunch. Then went down to a small stand and bought Black Tea Ice cream (apparently Sun Moon Lake is known for their black tea and the black tea ice cream). We liked the ice cream, but it wasn't something we would actively seek out again. I think I prefer green tea ice cream over black tea.

We tried to stay awake as long as we could, but ended up crashing and burning at 9pm again. T.T We check out the next day. 

Neat lanterns at Plum Lotus Garden, Sun Moon Lake January 28, 365 Challenge

Loved these little lanterns tucked away at Plum Lotus Garden.